Sunderland’s Kirk Goodings will head into the lion’s den on Saturday night as he puts his English lightweight title on the line on the under card of a big Matchroom Boxing bill in Manchester.

Goodings opposes Matchroom-backed Scott Cardle of nearby Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, in a fight that will also double up as an eliminator for the coveted British title.

The main event on the card will be Scott Quigg’s WBA World title defence and the card, including Goodings’ bout, will be televised on Sky Sports 1. Naturally Goodings is excited.

“It’s so exciting. I can’t wait!” he said. “If I can win this I’ll be fighting for the British title, it’s what every fighter dreams of – fighting for the British title.

“Being the English champ also means a lot to me. That belt has a lot of history so I don’t want to lose it.”

No doubt, Goodings’ task will be tough though. Cardle, unbeaten in 15, is the home fighter, backed by the promoter of the show – Eddie Hearn – and it isn’t unknown for the home fighters to get decisions when fights are tight.

Goodings was himself a victim of this in his only defeat on his 12 fight record to date. He travelled to Liverpool to take on Merseysider Steve Williams in 2012 and, after a very tight fight, the decision went against the Sunderland-boxer on that occasion.

Despite that though, Goodings earned mass appraisal for his performance and he is not worried about doing the same again on Saturday.

He said: “I believe I can win, I wouldn’t take the fight if I didn’t think I could. I’m not really thinking about whether I’ll need a knock-out to avoid the judges’ scorecards either.

“If a KO comes then it comes but I’m not going in thinking about bad decisions. Scott is a talented kid but he hasn’t yet been tested like I will test him. All the pre-fight talk is about him but that doesn’t bother me.

“I’m on my path and I just need to keep my head down and do what I do best. If anything it adds more pressure to him because people who don’t know what I’m capable of are expecting him to beat me easily.”

The pair do share a name on their respective records in the form of Fishburn, County Durham’s Gary Fox.

Cardle put in an almost perfect performance against Fox in 2013 beating him on points 79-73 over eight rounds.

In his last fight, and first defence of his English title, Goodings went one better than his opponent on Saturday, winning via stoppage in the eighth round with the bout scheduled for ten.

In the build up to the Fox fight things got heated, mainly from Fox’s side, and the bout turned into somewhat of a grudge match. As a result Goodings hasn’t had, and isn’t expecting any, advice from the Fishburn fighter on how to tackle Cardle.

“I did well in that fight but the animosity was all on his behalf. I hold no grudges, I did my job and I embarrassed him in front of his own fans.

“That fight proved the great work my trainer Shaun Casey has been doing. It was my fourth fight with him and in that time I’ve had two TKO wins [after only one early win in his first eight]. It’s down to the one-on-one time that we have and I didn’t have that before with my previous trainer [Tunde Ajayi].”

It proves to be an exciting night for Goodings on Saturday with big things on the horizon should he get the win. He closed by saying:

“I would like to thank my sponsors Alldec Northern Ltd, Thoburn Fruit &amp; Veg, MCPS, Lonsdale, Andrew Cowie Construction, Guilt Free Takeaway and Grapplefit. Also thank you to my fans who will be making the journey down.”

Sky Sports 1 will televise the show at the Phones4You Arena in Manchester. Coverage begins at 8pm with Olympian Anthony Joshua also on the bill.